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GH supplementation during IVF may increase live birth rate
Women who receive growth hormone supplementation while undergoing in vitro fertilization may have an increased chance for clinical pregnancy and live birth compared with women who do not receive GH supplementation, study data show.
John L. Yovich, MD, PhD, FRCOG, of the School of Biomedical Science, faculty of health sciences at Curtin University and PIVET Medical Centre both in Perth, Australia, and colleagues evaluated data on 400 in vitro cycles in which 161 women received GH supplementation and 239 did not to determine the effect of GH supplementation on clinical pregnancy and live birth rates.
Participants who received GH supplementation were older (P < .0002), had lower mean anti-Müllerian hormone (P < .0005) and higher oocyte (P < .0005) and embryo (P < .0005) utilization rates. More participants who received GH supplementation reached embryo transfer compared with those who did not (P = .015).
Clinical pregnancy could be predicted by participant’s age, antral follicle count, transferred embryo development state (blastocyst vs. cleavage stage) and the presence of GH supplementation.
The chance for clinical pregnancy or live birth decreased by 11% per year of participants’ increasing age. The chance for clinical pregnancy was increased by 2.24-fold with the presence of GH and 7.55-fold without GH when high-quality day-3 or high-quality blastocysts were transferred (P < .022) after adjustment for participant age. GH supplementation increased the chance for clinical pregnancy success by 3.42-fold and the chance for live birth success by 6.16-fold (P < .0005 for both) after adjustment for participants’ age, antral follicle count and transferred embryo quality.
Participants treated with GH supplementation were 4.5 times more likely to achieve pregnancy when aged 35 to 39 years compared with other ages. The chance for live birth increased in participants up to age 44 years with GH supplementation. GH supplementation increased the likelihood of achieving live birth by 3.81 times in those aged 35 years or younger, 14.68 times in those aged 35 to 39 years and 5.79 times in those aged 40 to 44 years.
“Although the study has certain limitations, the data suggested that GH supplementation may provide more live births, mainly in younger women and questions the use of adjuvant therapy in women older than 40, but particularly over 41 years,” the researchers wrote. “While the data do not demonstrate a significant effect on generated embryo quality, it does not indicate the GH may lead to more positive outcomes when embryos of lower quality are transferred. This raises the possibility that GH, whose mechanism in IVF is unknown, may not be related to embryo quality, but influences other aspects of female reproduction, such as endometrial receptivity.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.